After a pulsating opening to the Featherweight edition of the tournament last month, MTK’s Golden Contract sees the turn of the Super Lightweights this Friday at the York Hall, Bethnal Green.
The innovative idea sees the winner of the eight man field earning a lucrative contract with the promotional outfit.
The pair making the most noise prior to the start of the event have been Ohara Davies and Tyrone McKenna, but they have been kept apart, avoiding each other in the draw made earlier this week.
The tournament was hit by two late withdrawals, with former world title challenger, Anthony Yigit, and Zhankosh Turarov missing out.
All fights in the quarter finals are ten rounds. Sky Sports televise in the UK. Top Rank/ESPN host in America. Here is the preview for each last eight tie.
Ohara Davies (19-2, KO14) v Logan Yoon (16-0, KO12)
The man charged with attempting to halt Ohara Davies will be unknown Hawaiian, Logan Yoon, after he won the right to pick Davies as his opponent at the draw. 21-year-old Yoon turned professional in 2016 in Mexico, and footage of his fights are rare to find.
DAVIES DESTROYS 💥
This is why @OharaDavies is one of the #GoldenContract favourites…#GoldenContract
📍 @YorkHallEvents
📅 FRIDAY
🎟 https://t.co/MLgkHIYgWJ
📺 @SkySportsBoxing / @ESPN+#TeamMTKGlobal #MTKFightNight pic.twitter.com/kPb0QOwAvO— MTK Global 🌍 (@MTKGlobal) November 19, 2019
“Korican Kid” fights outside of USA and Mexico for the first time and his current ledger isn’t blessed with any recognisable names. He was last seen in an eight round points win against Robert Frankel in May.
Yoon holds an excellent amateur pedigree winning 100 fights in the unpaid ranks and is in the top 15 of the WBA rankings.
Davies has abandoned his recent pledge to let his fists do the talking, and has rubbed near enough every other competitor up the wrong way in the build up to the tournament.
‘Two Tanks’ has returned to his old youth trainer, Tony Cesay in a bid to rediscover his early career potential.
After fifteen straight wins, the Davies hype train was spectacularly derailed in Glasgow in July 2017, when Josh Taylor stopped the Londoner in seven rounds in a grudge match.
Following a sixth round stoppage of Tom Farrell, Davies made the promotional move from Eddie Hearn to Frank Warren. A stunning knockout of Paul Kamanga at the O2 in June 2018 was a false dawn, as Davies dropped a points decision to Jack Catterall in Leicester in October of the same year in a real stinker of a fight.
A move to the MTK stable followed, and in his sole appearance for them in June, he was fortunate to receive a points win against faded former world champion, Miguel Vazquez, in a fight many felt he had lost over ten.
Prediction: The 2019 Ohara Davies is a totally different version to the one seen early on in his career, and his loss to Josh Taylor appears to have left Davies mentally fragile. He looked under par against Catterall and Vazquez, and will need to put in a totally different display here to advance. Although unknown, Yoon is much fresher than Davies, and I think he can negate his opponent’s offence to win on the cards.
Mikey Sakyi (8-2, KO4) v Tyrone McKenna (19-1-1, KO6)
Belfast’s Tyrone McKenna will hope to remain on a collision course to face Davies with victory over one of the tournament replacements in Romford’s Mikey Sakyi.
McKenna, 29, is a solid contender to win the Golden Contract, and has a sole loss on his record to Jack Catterall on a tight points defeat, despite being knocked down twice.
He has won three on the bounce since that reverse, outscoring another entrant in the competition, Lewis Benson by a single point in November last year. McKenna’s last appearance saw him take a unanimous decision over Darragh Foley for the vacant WBC International belt.
Sakyi is the current Southern Area Champion, picking up the belt with a last round stoppage of the then unbeaten Siar Ozgul in July last year. He has defended once, with a one round knockout of Idris Hill in his last outing in March.
Prediction: McKenna is a skilful fighter, full of energy and he can dictate the action in this one. With Sakyi under exposed at this level, the pick is for McKenna to seal a relatively comfortable points win.
Kieran Gething (9-2-1, KO2) v Lewis Benson (12-2, KO2)
The aforementioned Lewis Benson sees action against the second late replacement, Pontypool’s Welsh Champion, Kieran Gething.
Edinburgh’s “Kid Caramel” Benson has been unfortunate in his two career setbacks, losing by just a point to Johnny Coyle and McKenna in back-to-back defeats in 2018. He has since had successive points victories against Zoltan Szabo and Renald Garrido.
Gething will hope to seize his latest opportunity after starting his professional career with a loss and a draw. He lost in a challenge for the Welsh Welterweight Title to Tony Dixon by a single point in October last year, but has three straight victories since.
A decision win against Henry Janes clinched the Welsh ten stone belt, and he has defended once, outscoring Craig Woodruff in June.
Prediction: Benson could well be a dark horse for the whole competition, and he has been unlucky in his two career defeats. If the heat is applied correctly by the Scot, he can stop Gething late on.
Mohamed Mimoune (21-3, KO2) v Darren Surtees (12-0, KO8)
Potential fight of the night could come in the form of former European Welterweight and IBO Super Lightweight Champion, Mohamed Mimoune and Thornley’s Darren Surtees.
Mimoune first came to prominence when he impressively ripped away Sam Eggington’s European crown in October 2017.
The Frenchman was far too slippery for ‘The Savage’ in Manchester, deservedly clinching a split decision win. He dropped down a weight to win the IBO belt at ten stone, and defended once, before running into the quality Viktor Postol in Las Vegas in April, falling to a wide points decision.
Unbeaten Surtees claimed the vacant Northern Area title in just his seventh outing and featured on the undercard of Callum Smith’s victory over George Groves in Jeddah last September.
The big punching 25-year-old has yet to go past six rounds, although former European titlist Mimoune is the more accomplished at championship distance.
Prediction: I think Surtees will look to win this one early, and may empty the tank come halfway. Mimoune is a tricky customer, and I fancy him to frustrate Surtees enough to take over and force a stoppage after halfway.
